487 



y 1 



Price, 25 Cents. 




\ 



^RY COMP £i VZ) % 




BEING A BRIEF TREATISE 



ON THE 



Rearing and Management of Domestic Fowls, 



BY 



H. S. BABCOCK. 



HARTFORD, CONN. 

1885. 



A 



POULTRY COMPENDIUM, 



BEING A 



BRIEF TREATISE 



ON THE 



REARING AND MANAGEMENT 



OF 



DOMESTIC FOWLS, 






/ 
H. S. BABCOCK. 




HARTFORD, CONN. 

188S. 






n 

- 



Copyright, 1885, by H. S. Babcock. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

THE poultry business is complex. It reaches out in 
many directions, and has many aims and ends. 
Those engaged in it, however, may be conveniently ar- 
ranged in six classes, according to the purposes to be 
accomplished; and the beginner should determine to which 
class he belongs, in order to pursue his business to 
the greatest advantage and achieve the highest success 
in it.- These classes comprise those who are engaged in: 
i. Raising poultry for market. 

2. Producing eggs for market. 

3. Supplying fowls and eggs for home consumption. 

4. The production of superior breeding stock. 

5. Experimental crossing, and the production of new 
breeds. 

6. Keeping fowls for pets. 

A person may follow the purpose indicated in any 
one of these classes exclusively, or he may unite two or 
more of them. For example, a person may raise poul- 
try and produce eggs for market, or he may devote 
himself to one of these objects alone. Generally he suc- 
ceeds the best, who is willing to concentrate all his ef- 



4 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

forts to the accomplishment of one thing. It requires 
courage to do it, but it is the shortest road to success. 
There may be "no royal road to learning," but "do one 
thing with all your might," is the royal road to success. 

Some breeds are better suited to one class, some to 
another; hence the necessity of knowing something about 
the different breeds. To engage in the poultry business 
without such knowledge would be about as wise as to go to 
sea without chart or compass. You might, in either case, 
arrive safely in port, and you might be dashed to pieces 
upon some unknown reef. A classification of breeds 
may be roughly made. This classification will not be 
found to be exclusive, for the breeds, like the purposes 
which the breeder may have, will overlap each other, but 
for general purposes this classification will probably be 
found sufficiently accurate. It is not designed to be ex- 
haustive, and only a few representative breeds are enu- 
merated. 

First Class. In this class belong those varieties of 
fowls which grow rapidly, fatten easily, attain good weight, 
and have, when such qualities can be united with the 
others, yellow legs and a yellow skin. The Dorkings, 
Plymouth Rocks, Cochins, Brahmas, Houdans, La Fleche, 
Langshans and others will be found suitable for this class. 

Second Class. In this class eggs are considered every- 
thing; chickens are viewed as accidents or incidents. The 
hens which, so to speak, "lay an egg on every day, and 
two on Sunday," and pursue this commendable course 
for the greater part of the fifty-two weeks in each year, 
are demanded. They are generally non-sitters, a trait of 
great importance in this connection. Their keeper only 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 3 

desires to raise enough chickens to replace one-half or 
three-fourths of his stock; for he finds that part pullets 
and part hens pay best, taking summer and winter to- 
gether. Leghorns and Hamburgs fill the bill, while Ply- 
mouth Rocks, Houdans and Langshans are also desirable. 

Third Class. Here is needed what is known as k 'the 
general-purpose fowl," "the combination fowl," and so on; 
that is, a fowl which unites in itself, in a high degree 
of excellence, the various qualities which distinguish other 
varieties. The laying qualities of the Leghorns, the table 
qualities of the Dorkings, the quiet disposition of the 
Asiatics, the beauty of the Games, are all desired in one 
fowl. Such a fowl has not yet been found, and there 
is no probability of its ultimate discovery. The quest 
has proved and will prove a fruitless one. But yet some 
varieties do unite laying qualities, table excellencies, quiet 
dispositions and great beauty in so high a degree that 
they serve to keep alive the hope in not a few breasts 
that eventually one fowl will be found possessing every 
desirable quality. Prominent among these varieties are 
the Plymouth Rocks, Dorkings and American Dominiques. 

Fourth Class. To this class belongs any breed in 
which the fancier is specially interested, and which has, 
as all breeds have to a greater or less degree, valuable 
qualities. Utility is to be preferred to beauty, but the 
two are not to be deemed antagonistic, but, on the con- 
trary, are to be united as far as possible, as they have 
been, for instance, in the production of that noble fowl, 
the Colored Dorking, and in that popular breed, the 
Wyandotte. 

Fifth Class. To this class belong all the breeds, both 



6 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

useful and ornamental, to be used as the knowledge and 
skill of the breeder may suggest. Here is a field wide 
in extent and fascinating in character. The possibilities 
of modifications of form and plumage, the effects pro- 
duced by judicious selection of specimens, careful matings 
of sexes, and wise crossings of breeds, make this both a 
useful and delightful field to explore. When we consider 
that the gigantic Light Brahma and the diminutive Game 
Bantam, the pure White Leghorn and the jet-black Lang- 
shan, the clean-headed Game and the tufted and bearded 
Polish, ard the almost innumerable variety of markings — 
lacings, barrings, spanglings — the different breeds display, 
all came from one variety of fowls, we begin to realize 
somewhat of the extent and interest of this field. Some 
of the best crosses for practical purposes, which have yet 
been made, are the White Leghorn and Light Brahma, 
the Brown Leghorn and Partridge Cochin, the Black 
Spanish and Plymouth Rock, the Colored Dorking and 
Dark Brahma, and the White Leghorn and Langshan. 
The products of these crosses have been excellent fowls 
for general purposes — good layers, good table fowls, etc. 
Sixth Class. This class is a wide one. To it belong 
those fowls which are preeminent for beauty of plumage, 
elegance of figure, and the possession of crests and ap- 
pendages which excite admiration or awaken wonder in 
the beholder. Here we find the beautiful Polish fowls, 
with their rose-like crests and depending beards; the clean 
cut, high-stationed, glistening-plumaged Games, which are 
the creme de la creme of the fancy; the little Bantams, 
with their important ways, the incarnation of strut and 
pomposity, of whose appearance one can never tire ; 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 7 

the Fur fowls, whose feathers excite your curiosity and 
wonder; the Rumpless fowls, that seem as if the Creator 
had started to make a model and had dropped it from 
his hands in an unfinished state, that remind you, by 
way of contrast, of the familiar quotation, "thereby hangs 
a tail," their tails being lost like those of little Bo-Peep's 
sheep; the Frizzles, which look as if they had been caught 
out in a cyclone — the storm striking them in the rear — 
and had not had time since then to arrange their dis- 
ordered garments; and m*any others that, by their appear- 
ance and ways, have been universally pronounced desirable 
for pets. 

It may not be unwise to caution the beginner against 
starting with too many varieties. I know that this is an 
oft-told tale, that "line upon line, precept upon precept, 
here a little and there a little," have been given upon 
this subject by our faithful poultry journals, a copy of 
one of which, at least, and more, if he can afford, ought 
to be in the hands of every breeder, whether veteran or 
beginner. And I know that this valuable advice is not 
always followed. There is need of constantly sounding 
the warning, until beginners are able to overcome the 
seductions of the many breeds, and like a faithful lover 
remain true to one. One feels in full sympathy, while 
considering this subject, with that clergyman who preached 
from his pulpit the same sermon week after week, until 
at last he was waited upon by a committee of the church 
to expostulate with him for such a proceeding. His justi- 
fication was briefly given: "I saw," he said, "that you 
had not acted upon the advice I gave, and I am deter- 
mined to preach that sermon until its suggestions are 



8 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

followed." When beginners will select one breed and 
stick to it until the difficulties of breeding it to a high 
standard are overcome, until, we may say, the breed is 
mastered, then it will be time to cease warning them 
against too many breeds; but until that time comes, every 
writer upon poultry, who does his full duty, will send 
out this warning cry: "One breed, enough — more breeds, too 
many; one breed, success — tnany breeds, failure." 

POULTRY-HOUSES AND YARDS. 

The purpose having been settled and the breed select- 
ed, before purchasing the fowls it becomes necessary for 
their would-be owner to provide a suitable place in which 
to keep them. 

Select for the site of your poultry-house and yard a dry 
soil. Dampness causes or intensifies that scourge of poul- 
try, the roup; it renders cleanliness next to impossible, 
and is indirectly the fruitful mother of a variety of dis- 
eases. If the soil is not naturally dry, drain it, and 
make it as dry as possible. Then do not commit the 
too common error of setting your house so low that the 
first rain will cause a miniature flood, and make the inside 
of your fowl-house resemble a duck pond. Set your house 
above the natural level of the soil and fill up to it, so 
that the land will slope from it each way, and form a 
good watershed. Dry earth used within the house, scat- 
tered over the floors, helps to render the atmosphere dry, 
besides being an admirable absorbent of those gases 
which are a valuable component part of fertilizers, but 
deadly to your stock. 

Secure sunlight. Let your fowl-house face the south, 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 9 

with southern and eastern windows. You cannot overes- 
timate the .value of sunlight for your fowls. Diseases, 
like wicked men, "love the darkness rather than light, 
because their deeds are evil." Sunlight, with its bright 
lances, will put to flight that dire army, led by roup, 
whose aides de camp are colds, catarrhs, rheumatic affec- 
tions, diarrhea, and cholera. 

Provide shade. If you doubt the need of this, stand 
for a half hour, without hat or other protection, und-ir 
the blazing rays of a July or August sun, and after this 
experience, if you do not die from a sun-stroke, think 
how your fowls would enjoy protection from the vertical 
rays of "the too-near-approaching sun." Trees are best, 
but boxes and boards may be propped up, and will af- 
ford a satisfactory substitute. 

Dorit forget fresh air, or, in other words, provide suita- 
ble ventilation. A direct draft should be avoided at all 
times, .but fresh air and means for the escape of foul 
gases must be provided. The want of fresh air leads 
to a weakened state of the constitution, the blood fails 
to be properly aerated and becomes thick, dark and slug- 
gish; hens cease to lay, contagious and epidemic diseases 
break out among them, and the loss of a part, or the 
whole, of the flock ensues. And all this because fresh 
air was not provided! 

Cleanliness is necessary, both for the comfort of the fowls 
and of their owner. Buildings should be so arranged as 
to be easily cleaned. Dry earth should be provided for 
the floors, it being one of the best deodorizers known 
Filth produces vermin, vermin produces disease, and dis- 
ease produces death. 



IO 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



Convenience should be sought after. "Time is money;" 
therefore, build so as to save time. A few dollars more 
spent in making a house convenient is money well in- 
vested; it will pay large dividends in actual gain, not 
only of time, but of money itself. For, if things are 
convenient to clean they will be kept clean, and cleanli- 
ness is, as we know, absolutely essential to success. 

A cheap and convenient poultry-house, to accommo- 
date from twelve to twenty fowls, suitable for one or 



A 

B 


A 

R 






. J 





Fig. 1. 

two breeds, may be built as follows: Fig. i represents 
the ground plan of the house, which is 16 feet long by 
8 feet wide, making two rooms for the hens, one 6x8 
and the other 8x8. An entry or hall 2x8 runs along 
the building, so that doors communicate with both rooms. 
This hall can be used for the storing of grain, and nest 
boxes can be arranged along it, so that the eggs can be 
gathered without entering the room where the fowls are 
kept: A A represent the small doors through which the 
fowls pass into their yards. R R represent roosts, and 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. II 

D D D the doors of the building. Beneath the roosts 
a board .to .catch droppings may be placed. The floor 
is to* be boarded, or to be of dry earth, as the builder 
may desire. 

Fig. 2 represents the front elevation, which is seven 
feet high; the rear is five feet in height. The windows 
should be provided with wire netting, so as to open and 
allow a free circulation of air through the house. This 
is specially necessary during the summer season. 




Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3 shows an end elevation, (the opening of the 
small sliding window to be covered with wire netting, 
for the purpose of securing ventilation.) 

The house in this plan, drawn for my own use, is 
designed to face the east. If you can give a southern 
exposure, let the small doors A A be placed beneath the 
large windows. 

The bill of lumber needed will be as follows: For 
frame, rafters, etc., 187 feet spruce; covering, 400 feet 



12 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



hemlock, 350 feet spruce, and enough shingles for roof; 
add to this the cost of lining with tarred paper. The 
lumber bill will not be far from $20; with windows* per- 
haps $25. Any one who has any mechanical ingenuity- 
can build it. The dimensions will be found to be such 
that lumber can be cut without waste. 




Fig. 3. 

A house very similar to the above, except that the. 
hallway is omitted, stands upon my grounds. The dimen- 
sions are to by 12 feet; the front of the house is 9 feet 
in height, the rear 7 feet in height ; it has a shed 
roof made of matched pine boards, the joints put 
together with white lead, and the building, roof and all, 
has received two good coats of paint. The frame,. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



*3 



except the sills which are chestnut, is of spruce. The 
first or inside boarding is of hemlock nailed with 
planed side in. This is covered with heavy tarred paper, 
and the paper is in turn covered with matched pine 
boards. There are two large windows made in one sash 
(ordinary storm sashes) and fitted to slide to each side, so 
that in summer the glass can be out of the way and 
allow the admission of plenty of air. Two round holes 
are cut for the admission of the fowls and are closed 
with sliding doors. In each end of the building near 
the roof there is left an opening for ventilation, to be 
closed in the same way. The house is divided into two 
rooms, each 10 by 6 feet, with a lath partition and a 
battened door. The foundation of the house was made 
by digging a trench about a foot wide and deep, filling 
the same with stone and cement; upon this an eight inch 
wall, three bricks high, was laid. The foundation cost 
nine dollars. The floor is of earth and is filled inside 
the house nearly up to the sills, and outside sufficiently 
to form a good watershed. The following is the actual 
bill for materials and labor. The house was built by a 
carpenter, and the foundation laid by a mason. 

Cost of foundation $9.00 

564 feet of matched pine @ 3 cents .....16.92 

52 " spruce @ .018 .94 

58 " chestnut @ .025 I.45 

150 " spruce @, .018 2.70 

340 " hemlock @ .015 5.10 

2 latches and handles 20 

1 lock 30 

36 feet of moulding (under edges of roof) 90 

20 lbs. of nails @ 4 cents .80 



14 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

53 lbs. of tarred paper @, 3^ cents 1.86 

2 windows 5.00 

30 hours labor @ 30 cents 9.00 

To carting 75 

To painting 3. 50 



$58.42 
This furnishes an admirable house for one or two 
breeds. I use it for two breeding pens, there being kept 
in the house at the date of this writing twelve Leghorns 
and nine Dorkings. 

The farmer or fancier who constructs his own house 
could of course save considerable on the above bill. He 
could lay a good stone foundation which would answer 
every purpose, and he could do his own carpenter work 
and painting. His savings would he something like this: 

On foundation $9.00 

" labor 9.00 

" painting 2.00 

" carting 75 



Total saving $20.75 

Cost of the house to him $58.42 

Less saving 20. 75 

$37.67 
This is a small sum to expend for so good a poul- 
try-house. 

A cheaper poultry-house can be built by allowing the 
roof to extend almost to the ground, as in Fig. 4. 

This cut needs little explanation. The advantage 
gained is obvious. This plan was suggested by Mr. H. 
H. Stoddard, in his valuable little work on "Poultry 
Architecture," to which the reader is referred for numer- 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 




1 6 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

ous plans. This is an admirable house for the farmer 
to build. 

Next comes the yard. If you keep but one variety, 
and can allow the fowls to run at large, no yard is 
needed. But if you have more than one breed, which 
you wish to keep from intermixing, you must build a 
yard, and the questions of size, height of fence, fencing 
materials, and other details must be settled. 

Make your yard as large as you can afford to. The 
larger the yard, the better your fowls will thrive. A yard 
20x50 feet will answer for a flock of twenty fowls, and 
you can keep that number in one-half the space, but they 
will not do so well if thus crowded. The height of your 
fence will depend upon the breed kept. Hamburgs, Leg- 
horns and Games require a fence not less than six feet 
in height, while eight feet is still better. The Asiatics 
can be kept in a yard which would hold a pig, A fence 
made of one length of lath and pointed on top will keep 
Plymouth Rocks safely. You can build either permanent 
or movable fences. The latter possess some very decided 
advantages, as fresh soil for fowls is very desirable. 
Movable fences are built in the form of the old Virginia 
snake fence, by allowing the rails to project a little be- 
yond the pickets. They can also be made in lengths 
as shown in the following figures. 

Fig. 5 shows a length of fence with the posts. Fig. 
6 shows a sharpened post, with the two hooks upon which 
the fence rails are hung. The length of the post should 
depend upon the character of the soil into which it is 
to be driven. 

A very good permanent fence can be built by setting 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



17 



posts at the usual distance, providing light top and bot- 
tom rails, and nailing around the bottom next to the 
earth a board, above which laths sharpened at one end 
are used for pickets. This is an economical fence. The 
best fencing material is the galvanized wire netting, which 
can be procured of almost any desired width and at 
very reasonable rates. No fence rails are needed when 
wire netting is used, but a good, wide bottom board 
should always be provided. 




Fig. B. 



Fig. 6. 



Chicken coops are made of all shapes and sizes, but 
for general use, expense being taken into consideration, 
nothing better than the old fashioned "A" coop has been 
designed. It is well to have a floor inside to raise the 
chicks above the wet earth — an important matter when a 
cold storm is in progress. An A-shaped lath run in front of 
the coop, to enable the hen to get at the earth and into 
the sun, is desirable. It will be found convenient to 
have the bottom board of the back of the coop hung 
on hinges, so that the breeder can easily reach the hen 
and chicks whenever he wishes to do so. 

A barrel laid down upon its side and propped up, 
so as to prevent water from standing in it in case of a 



i8 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



driving storm, will answer very well for a coop, though 
it is not convenient to get at the hen or chickens when 
it is necessary to examine them. 

Cat-proof, rat-proof, and crow-proof coops and runs 
are demanded in some places. They are not difficult to 
make, but fine-meshed wire enters into their construction. 
Fig. 7* gives a very good idea of such a coop. 




Fig. 7. 
MATING. 

We have now built our poultry-house and yards and 
purchased our fowls, and naturally desire to mate them so 
as to produce the best results. We have selected a breed, 
and wish to retain those characteristics which determined 
our choice. Upon what principles shall we make our 
matings to produce chickens which shall be equal or 
superior to their progenitors ? If we make correct mat- 
ings, we may feel reasonably sure of retaining the desira- 
ble characteristics of the breed, but if our fowls are in- 
correctly mated, their descendants will prove inferior to 



* This design, as well as the one on movable fences, is bor- 
rowed from " Poultry Architecture," by H. H. Stoddard. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. T9 

•the old fowls, and the deterioration will have begun, 
which will, in time, render the descendants of the choicest 
specimens of thoroughbreds little better than the com- 
mon dunghill fowl. This, then, is a very important 
matter ; in it too great care cannot be exercised. 

There are some general principles which ought to be 
stated: 

1. Fowls matched for exhibition are seldom properly 
mated for breeding. Matching and mating are not the 
same thing. For this reason, oftentimes, a purchaser of 
the breeding pen which has just been awarded the first 
premium at some of the poultry exhibitions, looking for 
something admirable in their progeny, meets with bitter 
disappointment. The fowls did look finely together, but 
they were matched, not mated. 

2. The best specimens of the breed ought to be 
saved for breeding purposes. Resist the temptation to 
dispose of your finest stock, no matter what the price 
offered, if you wish to succeed. I know the temptation 
is great, when one has received a liberal offer, to dispose 
of just those birds which he ought to retain. It seems 
like a loss to refuse the offer, but you will get your 
pay in the future, if you do ; and you will, too, if you 
do not. 

3. The deficiency of the hen must be met by a cor- 
responding surplus in the cock, and vice versa. To illus- 
trate what is meant — suppose you are breeding for a plump, 
round breast, and your hen is lacking in that quality, 
the cock with which she is mated ought to have a 
breast excessively prominent, so that the progeny, will 
reach an average which will meet your desires. 



20 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

4. Do not breed from immature stock. Pullets some- 
times prove good breeders, but hens are generally much 
better. If your breeding stock is not fully developed, 
they will not be likely to throw as large or vigorous 
chickens, for, being not fully grown, their young will be 
likely to inherit only the size to which they have attain- 
ed ; and, not having matured, a portion of the force — 
which should go into the chick — is used in the develop- 
ment of its mother. 

5. Breed from stock of different ages ; or, in other 
words, mate young cocks with old hens, and old cocks 
with young hens. The very best mating, which you can 
make, is that of a cock a little over a year old with hens 
two or three years old. This gives size and vigor in 
the chicks. Next to that is the mating of a two-year- 
old cock with hens one year old, which have already 
laid one or two litters. Good results may be obtained 
from mating a two-year-old cock with hens of the same 
age, but from such a mating you will be apt to have 
fewer chicks, although those which you do get will be 
likely to be satisfactory. 

6. Do not breed in-and-in. This, in time, will weaken 
the constitution of your chicks, until they become practi- 
cally worthless. Yet it is better sometimes to breed in 
once, as, for example, to breed a cock with pullets of 
his own getting, than to obtain fresh blood from a strain 
whose characteristics are widely different from those of 
your own strain. It is sometimes very necessary to breed 
in, in this way, in order to fix some peculiarity ; but 
you must remember, when you are doing it, that you 
are taking the first step toward degeneracy, and that 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 21 

death lies that way. This will lead you to carefully 
balance the advantages with the disadvantages, and you 
will not be likely to allow small advantages to lead you 
far into a course which is so fraught with danger. 

7. The hen leaves the greatest impress upon her own 
chickens, but the cock leaves his impress upon the great- 
est number. If you are trying to reach the highest de- 
gree of excellence in a few chicks, the hen is of more 
importance than the cock ; if you desire to obtain the 
highest average results, the cock is of the greater impor- 
tance. According as your aim is will be your selection, 
if either the male or the female must be the inferior. 
The best rule is to have them both superior 

8. Weight, easiness to fatten, rapidity of growth, fe- 
cundity, are all qualities which can be bred, as well as 
those outward qualities — the shape and size of combs, 
color of ear-lobes, and markings of plumage. The first 
are intrinsic, the second extrinsic qualities. If one class 
of qualities must be sacrificed, it is better that it be the 
latter, but with time and care both may be united. 
Prolificacy is no more intangible a quality in a hen than 
speed is in a horse, and we know in these days, when 
the seconds, which separate a horse's record from two 
minutes, are a constantly diminishing quantity, what blood 
and breeding will do in this respect ; nor is it more in- 
tangible than the milk-giving or butter-producing qualities 
of a cow, and we are living in a day when breeding is 
demonstrating the ability to produce milk and butter in 
quantities which would have made our grandfathers think 
that the impossible had come to reign upon the earth. 
And so, too, with other valuable qualities. The only 



22 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

thing to make them certain in our fowls is to breed 
from strains which are noted in this particular direction. 
The fanciers of this country have been breeding too 
much for the merely external qualities. The temptation 
to do so is strong, because such qualities show j they 
win in the exhibition room, they gather in the prizes, 
they fill the eye of the purchasers, and make money for 
their owners. But the time is coming, even now the 
signs of promise are in the air, we can already see the 
first streaks of the dawn of that day which shall right 
all this wrong, and put the breeder of intrinsic above 
the breeder of extrinsic qualities alone. Breed, then, for 
intrinsic rather than extrinsic qualities, but unite the two, 
so far as possible, without any sacrifice of the former to 
the latter. 

These general rules will be found applicable to all 
breeds of fowls. A few applications of these rules to 
mating poultry will convince the breeder of their impor- 
tance. It will not be amiss to note some matings of 
those breeds which are well known, for in so doing we 
shall illustrate the principles which underlie almost all 
matings. 

One of the most difficult breeds to properly mate is 
also one of the most popular of the Asiatics, 

PARTRIDGE COCHINS. 

To produce the best results, two matings are neces- 
sary ; one for the production of cockerels, the other for 
the production of pullets. For the production of cock- 
erels, the cock must be possessed of good symmetry ; 
small, evenly-serrated comb ; broad and beautiful saddle ; 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 23 

.full, abundant fluff ; tail carried low and as free as pos- 
sible from quill feathers ; shanks, feet and middle toe 
well feathered ; breast, fluff and leg feathering solid black ; 
hackle, what the Standard calls fine orange- red, toward 
the front very dark ; saddle, same color as hackle, with 
stripe of saddle and hackle feathers jet black. The hen 
should have a small head ; a small and fine comb ; hackle 
of a rich orange ; ground color dark, handsome brown ; 
broad, ample cushion ; penciling of a deeper brown, very 
fine, nearly covering ground color upon breast and flat 
of wings ; secondary quills very black ; cushion almost 
black. Such a mating will produce fine cockerels. 

For the production of pullets, the cock, while pos- 
sessing all the Cochin characteristics, ought not to have 
a black fluff and breast, but a good proportion of brown 
or red therein, feathers laced with red better than solid 
brown or red ; hackle and saddle bright orange, lighter 
than in cock mated to produce males. The hen should 
have bright orange head and hackle, the latter striped 
with solid black, although this is not absolutely necessary; 
ground color of body light brown ; center of breast and 
flat of wings penciled with semi-circles of quite dark 
color ; back well penciled ; cushio.i penciled so as to 
nearly cover ground color ; and short secondary quill 
well penciled. Such a mating will give a good percentage 
of exhibition pullets. 

Some of the best breeders of this variety claim that 
a fair percentage of standard cockerels and pullets can 
be obtained by mating together standard birds, and that, 
therefore, two matings are unnecessary. We think, how- 
ever, that the two matings mentioned will be found to 



I 

24 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

be more satisfactory in results than a single mating of 
standard birds. At least, such is the practice of the 
very best breeders. 

BUFF COCHINS. 

Do not use a bird of either sex with faded feathers, 
white tail, or of light weight. 

The cock should be of a rather dark buff color, 
especially on the tail and wings ; the rear half of back 
should be wide, with heavy saddle, rising dome-like to 
the stern ; tail coverts chestnut ; tail dark chestnut ; 
thighs stout, rich buff color, the feathering extending 
down outside of shank and covering middle toe. The 
saddle and lower part of hackle covered with abundant, 
long-pointed, full buff plumage. Mealy appearance upon 
the wings is highly objectionable. 

The hen should have small head, comb and wattles, 
short neck, rich buff color ; full plumage in cushion, 
fluff and even to the feathering of the middle toe ; tail 
almost invisible. 

WHITE COCHINS AND BLACK COCHINS 

follow the same general rules regarding mating, except as 
to color; and in all solid colored fowls to produce plum- 
age it is only necessary to see that both cock and hen 
possess the right color, free from feathers of any other 
hue. White and Black Cochins should be mated, the 
hens and cocks both having the Cochin characteristics, 
and selected much as you would for the mating of Buff 
Cochins, except as to color. He who has learned how 
to mate Buff Cochins needs no instruction in mating 
White or Black Cochins. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 25 

LIGHT BRAHMAS. 

In mating this breed, if the male has a dark hackle, 
black wing-flights and black tail, he should be mated 
with females lighter in those points, and vice versa. For 
some unknown reason the sire — in this breed, at least — 
seems to have more influence on the plumage than the 
dam, so that if you have a good cock you are quite 
likely to get good plumaged chicks. The mating of 
pullets with a cock two years old is an admirable one, 
and produces very satisfactory results. 

DARK BRAHMAS. 

The mating of Dark Brahmas is not one-half so dif- 
ficult as the obtaining of standard birds, for the best 
mating is the mating' of standard birds ; that is, those 
of both sexes which are free from the faults enumerated 
in the Standard. Clear plumaged, large birds, the cock 
with clear black breast, and the hen with finely penciled 
plumage, free from brown shades or brown feathers, give 
the mating desired. It used to be considered necessary 
to make two matings of Dark Brahmas, and that practice 
is still followed by some breeders, but we think that the 
experience of the most eminent breeders will fully sustain 
the text, that one mating is sufficient. 

PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 

The Standard imposes a special hardship upon this 
noble breed by requiring the birds to match in the show 
pen, while Nature does everything to prevent such a re- 
sult. The males will run light and the females dark 
under the treatment and handling of the most experi- 
enced breeder. Three matings may be made. 



26 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

i. After rejecting all of the darkest pullets and all 
of the lightest cockerels, take of the remainder the dark- 
est pullets and mate with one of the lightest cockerels — 
not akin, of course. This will give light cockerels, a 
majority of the pullets the color of the mothers, and a 
few lighter pullets, which are very desirable for breeding 
purposes. 

2. Take pullets lighter than those used in first mat- 
ing and mate them with a medium colored cockerel. This 
is a good mating, especially for cockerels. 

3. Mate the lightest pullets with a dark medium 
cockerel, but be careful that the cockerel is not too 
dark or you will get black pullets. If the pullets are 
quite light of course the cockerel can be almost of their 
shade and black chicks not result from the mating. 

HAMBURGS. 

In mating the different varieties of Hamburgs, it is 
necessary to see that both male and female have the 
true Hamburg shape and characteristics ; if spangled, that 
the spangling be clear, the feathers well marked ; if pen- 
ciled, that the penciling be the same ; and that the 
colors for cock and hen be such as are required in the 
American Standard of Excellence. Breed a large number, 
from which to select your exhibition birds, for with the 
most careful mating there will be not a few impeh'oct 
specimens. 



LEGHORNS. 

To produce good combs in the cockerels — that is, 
combs which do not have a tendency to lop over — select 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 27 

a hen having a strong or even, upright comb ; this will 
give good,- firm, erect combs on the cockerels. 

Mate hens with large combs, falling well over to side, 
with cockerels with medium size combs ; this will give 
good pullets. 

In other respects let your birds be good show birds, 
with the exception of the color of the ear-lobe, which 
should have a shade of yellow, instead of being white, 
as the Standard at this writing demands, and with the 
further exception in White Leghorn cocks of having a 
golden tinge to the plumage, especially of the hackle. 

This yellow tinge in ear-lobes and in the plumage of 
White Leghorn cocks is the usual attendant of yellow 
legs and yellow skin, which make the fowls more desira- 
ble when they are marketed. 

The Leghorns, in addition to their other good quali- 
ties, it will be seen, are easily mated, the natural mating 
throwing a good percentage of fine chicks. 

A careful study of the general principles laid down 
for mating, and of the special examples given of mating 
certain breeds, will enable any one to mate almost any 
breed of fowls so as to produce fairly good results ; but 
only a natural genius for mating stock, an eye which 
can, from a glance at the sire and the dam, see the 
figure and the markings of the future chick, will enable 
a man to achieve the highest success as a breeder. In- 
struction is valuable, rules are of service ; but the breed- 
er, like the poet, is born, not made. 

INCUBATION. 

You have settled upon the principles of mating your 



28 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

flock, and have purchased the male bird, and now you 
ask, " How many females ought I to put with him ?" 
If he is young and vigorous, he ought to have not less 
than six nor more than fifteen to secure the impregna- 
tion of the eggs ; about a dozen is a good number. You 
can place more hens of the smaller breeds with the cock 
than you can of the larger, for the cocks of small breeds 
are more active and pay more attention to their flocks. 
This question settled, you secure ten or twelve hens 
and put them into the yard with the cock. In a short 
time your ears are saluted with " cut, cut, cut-da-cut, — 
cut, cut, cut-da-cut," and you go to the nest and find 
a new-laid egg. 

The new-laid egg, how nicely turned ! 

How perfect it in every part ! 
Come, wise man, tell, with all you've learned. 

From Science's laws and rules of Art, 

What shapes the egg so perfectly ; 

What wondrous hidden chemistry 

Converts from corn, as by a spell, 

The yolk and white within a shell. 

There is much which science cannot explain, but we 
do know that an egg is composed of a yolk, surrounded 
by albumen or the white, and this wrapped in a thin 
membrane, and the whole enclosed in a shell, the prin- 
cipal component of which is lime. It is supposed that 
the yolk is composed of blood and a certain proportion 
of oil extracted from the grain which the hen has eaten. 
We need not be surprised at this, for chemistry has 
taught us that sugar is identical in its elements with the 
shirts on our backs, and a very good article of brandy 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 29 

can be made out of fence rails. The yolks or ova grow 
in a cluster on the spine, and pass through a fold of 
soft skin between the lungs and the kidneys. When the 
yolk is matured, it drops into the mouth of a funnel- 
shaped duct, fifteen or twenty inches long, made up of 
three divisions, each one terminating in an elbow. The 
yolk makes three revolutions, in passing through the first 
of these divisions, and gathers to itself three layers of 
the white, in much the same way as a snowball gathers 
layers of snow when rolled over and over. The second 
division moves the partially formed egg forward with a 
rotary motion, thus giving it a finished shape, and adds 
the enclosing membrane. The third division completes 
the work by adding the shell, colored to suit the breed. 
The egg is fertilized by the influence of the male, which 
passes through a small duct along the spine to the clus- 
tering ova. 

We have the egg now, but our curiosity is not satis- 
fied, and we cry out, 

Explain to me, if this you may, 

How life lies hid within the shell ; 
How warmth shall bring some future day 

This life to light, I pray thee tell. 

Unfold, O, Sage, the mystery 

Ensphered within an egg may be, 

And teach me how from yolk and white 

The downy chick is formed aright. 

And the Sage replies, "The chick is formed entirely 
from the white, and here we see the use of the three 
revolutions, in the first division. The first layer forms 
the bone and sinew, the second the flesh, the third the 



3© A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

skin and feathers. The first part formed is the eyes, 
appearing as two black specks, one on each side of the 
suspending cord at the large end ; next the skull bone 
between them ; and then the neck, spine, legs and wings 
in the order mentioned. In nine days there is a com- 
plete circulation and life has begun ; in fourteen all the 
white has been wrought into the growing chick. The 
chords have become connected with the stomach and 
from the navel protrude in a number of blood vessels, 
enclosing the yolk in a net-work of finer ones. From 
this yolk the chicken is nourished, the yolk being re- 
converted to blood. The blood vessels gradually contract 
until the yolk is drawn into the chick, the navel closes, 
the shell is cracked, and the chick emerges." 

"Ah!" but you say, "Mr. Sage, you have described 
some processes but you have not unfolded the mystery. 
The reason is still as obscure as it was in the begin- 
ing." 

"But I have given you," he answers, "all that Science 
knows or Philosophy teaches upon this subject." 

Then you exclaim — 

" Cease then thy vaunts, Philosophy, 
To teach to man the laws of life ; 
What worth thy boasted formulae, 
Which have the ages set in strife, 
If common things transcend thy ken 
Daily observed by common men, 
If when for knowledge we thus beg 
Thou stumbleth blindly o'er an egg !" 

We have anticipated a little, for, if ycu remember, 
your hen had just laid an egg. She will have to lay 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 31 

quite a number of them, and several weeks will elapse 
before she becomes broody (provided she does not belong 
to the non-sitting varieties, in which case your waiting 
would be in vain), and you can prepare for chickens. 
Incubation is an interesting process, and you may indulge 
your tastes in it in two kinds, natural and artificial. 
Natural incubation, of course, is where one makes use of 
the hen to hatch the chickens, and generally to bring 
them up. The first thing to be done, after you dis- 
cover a hen giving infallible signs of a desire to sit, is 
to provide for her a suitable nest in a suitable place. 
The place should be secluded and where other hens 
cannot get to her, either to lay in the same nest or to 
quarrel with her over its possession, and to break a por- 
tion of the eggs in their struggles. If it be early in the 
season, make the nest in as warm and sheltered a place 
as possible, and of plenty of broken straw or hay, pressed 
down so as to make it slightly concave, just enough to 
keep the eggs from rolling out, but not concave enough 
to make them roll against each other, each one tending 
to the center of the nest. If it be a little later in the 
season, make your nest by cutting a sod of suitable size 
to fit the box or barrel in which the nest is to be 
made ; invert the sod and hollow out the nest, and 
cover with a thin sprinkling of straw, hay or leaves. If 
you cannot conveniently get a sod, fill your box with 
earth from which the larger stones have been removed, 
and in this earth shape the nest as before described. 

Remove your sitter to the nest at night, placing un- 
der her a number of nest eggs, until you are satisfied 
that she "means business ;'• then you can remove the 



32 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

nest eggs and put under her a sitting of eggs for hatch- 
ing. The number of eggs to be placed under a hen 
will depend upon three things — the size of the eggs, the 
size of the hen, and the time of year. I generally 
place twelve Plymouth Rock eggs under a Plymouth Rock 
hen — which breed, by the way, makes admirable sitters — 
if I wish to set one in April ; if later in the season, 
when the weather has become warmer, I add to the 
number, and make it fourteen or fifteen. Hens of this 
variety will cover and hatch even a greater number, but 
I prefer not to use more than about fifteen. 

Twice or three times during the time that the hen is 
sitting, the last time about five or six days before she 
hatches, sprinkle her thoroughly with sulphur, to banish 
vermin from her and her chicks. I generally sprinkle 
upon the straw a small handful of smoking tobacco when 
I make the nest. 

When the twenty-first day arrives be careful not to 
be too curious, or you may lose some chickens. Your 
hens ought to be tame enough to submit to handling, 
but it is generally well not to handle even tame hens 
at this critical period. Some advocate the removal of 
each chick as soon as hatched, until the hen has com- 
pleted her hatching. Such a course will probably pre- 
vent her leaving her nest before completing her contract, 
if she is a tame hen ; but if not, you may so frighten 
her as to cause her to desert her nest. If the chicks are 
removed, they must be supplied with artificial heat. It is 
not a bad course to pursue, and one which I believe pays 
quite as well as any, in the long run, to leave the hen 
entirely alone, and let her do her own hatching. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. $$ 

Do not remove chicks from the shell. Except in 
very exceptional cases, the chick which cannot get out 
of its own shell unaided it is not worth while to attempt 
to rear. If you are very desirous to play the part of 
an accoucheur, the best thing will be to do it in the 
proper construction of the nest, proper precautions against 
vermin, and perhaps one or two sprinklings of the eggs 
with tepid water a day or two previous to the time of 
hatching. The do-nothing-at-birth course is one which 
takes the least of your time, and generally gives very 
good satisfaction. 

Don't feed your chicks when first hatched. The re- 
mainder of the yolk, which they have drawn into them, 
will supply them with nourishment for the first twenty- 
four or thirty-six hours. 

In about twenty-four hours after the hatching has be- 
gun, you can remove the hen and her brood to a suita- 
ble coop 'with run attached, which you have already pre- 
pared. The subject of feeding the chicks will be treated 
of in its proper place. 

It is a good plan to have two or more hens sitting 
at the same time; then you can remove the chicks from 
one and give them to the other to rear with her own, 
and can put another sitting of eggs under the hen you 
have robbed, making each hen, after the first one, hatch 
out two broods for you. 

In artificial incubation you must supply the elements 
which make natural incubation successful. The failure 
to supply any one of these elements will render the re- 
sult to be derived problematical, and may issue in par- 
tial or total failure. These elements are heat, air and 



34 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

moisture. If these are supplied in the right amounts 
and at the right time incubation will be successful. 
The incubator, which complies with the natural require- 
ments and furnishes at the proper time and in the proper 
amounts the natural elements, is the one which you wish 
to procure, if you desire to raise fowls artificially. Let 
us defer for a moment the further consideration of this 
topic to inquire whether an incubator is needed at all. 

If you do not desire to raise more than one hundred 
chickens and you wish to study economy, you will not 
purchase an incubator, unless you are anxious to obtain 
very early chicks. The expense of the incubator and 
brooder, and the time, trouble and expense of running 
them, ought not to be assumed unless for special reasons. 
But there are some very decided advantages to be 
gained by using an incubator. 

i st. You can hatch your chickens at any time in the 
year. This will enable you to get out early chickens, 
to be sent to market and sold at high prices, when 
broilers are about as rare as January strawberries, You 
can also get Asiatics, which require a long time to grow, 
out of the shell early enough to give them time to ob- 
tain their growth and make better specimens for the ex- 
hibition room. Where you rely upon hens for incubators, 
they sometimes show a strange reluctancy to sitting, un- 
til quite late in the season, and, on "the early bird" prin- 
ciple, your opportunity goes by, because your hens re- 
fuse to sit. A lover of chickens, rejected by an opin- 
ionated old hen ! 

2d. The chickens hatched in an incubator are free 
from vermin. A lousy hen ought not be allowed to 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 35 

• sit, but if your nesi has been made as has been recom- 
mended and you have faithfully sprinkled her with sul- 
phur, your chicks will be free from lice. The trouble 
is, many forget to do this, and the little ones are 
hatched out, and in a week or two begin to die, all be- 
cause of that "lousy nuisance," a sitting hen. 

3d. You can hatch out a large number at a time, 
so as to have many of the same age to select from, 
whereas if you had depended upon hens for incubation, 
you might have been obliged to wait a long time before 
you could have found a sufficient number of hens, which 
desired to sit at the same time, to accomplish your pur- 
pose. 

4th. By using an incubator you can keep your hens 
laying and, from a small stock of finely bred hens, raise 
a much larger number of chicks than if you allowed 
them to sit. 

5th. If you are raising the non-sitting breeds, you 
will be obliged either to keep some sitters, buy, borrow, 
beg or steal sitters of your neighbors when hatching time 
comes around, or rely upon your incubator. The latter 
is what you are quite likely to do. 

These, and perhaps other advantages, have made the 
subject of artificial incubation popular, and have stimu- 
lated inventive genius to produce something which will 
successfully take the place of the sitting hen. 

Observation of what the hen does, will teach us 
what an incubator ought to do. In the first place we 
find that a hen sits steadily, seldom leaving her nest, for 
the first four or five days. By placing a thermometer 
under her we find that her heat is about 103 degrees. 



$6 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

In an incubator we should observe the same conditions, 
furnishing a steady heat of about 103 degrees without 
disturbing the eggs. 

A hen by constant sitting becomes somewhat weak- 
ened ; her natural temperature drops down a degree or 
two ; she leaves her nest and daily turns her eggs. This 
we should imitate in our incubator, airing the eggs and 
turning them as that natural incubator, the hen, does. 

And, again, we know from a certain scientific law, 
that even when the hen cannot get to the grass in the 
morning when the dew is on it, she imparts, from her 
own vital tissues, moisture to the eggs. If we could 
measure the exact amount and could know just the 
times when this moisture was given to the eggs, we 
could tell just how much should be supplied in artifi- 
cial incubation. We know that the incubator must sup- 
ply some, and carefully conducted experiments ought to 
teach us how much. Here is a field 'for the experimen- 
tal scientist, which will pay for cultivation, for he, who 
can give a perfect incubator, will be able to control the 
market, and the market will be a large one. 

As soon as your chicks are hatched, they should be 
removed to the brooder or artificial mother. Many 
manufacturers of incubators also make brooders to go 
with them. As in the incubator the processes of the 
hen were imitated, so in the brooder you should copy 
from this pattern. Warmth from above should be shed 
upon these now motherless chicks, like that from the 
brooding wings of their natural mother. Ventilation should 
be provided, so that the warm air is also pure air, and, 
with the proper supply of food and water, your chicks 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



37 



will be likely to do well. Indeed, so well do chicks 
raised under artificial mothers grow, that many people, 
who hatch the chicks with hens, prefer to raise them in 
brooders. As the brooder is much simpler in construc- 
tion than the incubator, we extract from " Incubation; 
Natural and Artificial," by H. H. Stoddard, the descrip- 
tion of one which can be made cheaply and easily, and 
has proved effective. The drawing and description were 
sent to Mr. Stoddard by Rev, Hugh Smythe, of Eliza- 
beth, N. J., whose words we quote : 




" The sash is the only part which everybody may not 
be able to construct at home. It consists of a common 
garden frame, which I easily put together myself (the 
sash cost $2.50 already glazed and painted), and a slant- 
ing brooder fitted to the back or higher end. The 
brooder proper is made with a board floor, and ends, 
and covered with tin. This is made to slant back, as 
represented in the drawing, to about four or five inches 



3« 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



at the back. The front is open to the run inside the 
frame under the glass. The tin is turned over at the 
ends and tacked fast. It is also continued up above 
the level of the glass and turned over to shed the 
water. Stakes are driven into the ground eight or ten 
inches back from the brooder, and rough boards are 
fitted to them, and the whole is then filled in with fresh 
stable manure closely packed down. The tin keeps the 
inside of brooder free from damp and smell. It should 




BROODER AND FRAME. 



be prepared a day or two days before the chicks are 
put in. The heat will then be as much as they need, 
Or can bear. The holes in front of frame are sometimes 
sufficient ventilation, but the sash may either be drawn 
down an inch or two or raised in front by a piece of 
wood, if more air is needed." 

In most of the brooders heat is furnished by a lamp, 
as it is in the incubator. The one which we have de- 
scribed is said by its inventor to have been used "with 
exceptional success." 

Many claim that bottom heat in a brooder is better 






A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 39 

than that sapplied from above. Some breeders have 
certainly had excellent success with brooders heated from 
the bottom. A combination of top and bottom heat we 
think might be an improvement upon either. 

THE CARE OF THE YOUNG CHICK. 

Childhood has ever been a fruitful theme for author 
and poet ; its joys, its sorrows, its hopes, its aspirations, 
its successes and its failures we all look back to, and 
distance, in time as well as in space, "lends enchant- 
ment to the view." But the sober statistician looks up- 
on childhood in a very different way. To him it is a 
period of numerous ailments and great mortality. Our 
view of the childhood of a chicken, or the chickenhood 
of a fowl, resembles more that of the statistician than 
that of the poet. Tender days they are to be sure, but 
tender physically rather than sentimentally. A chicken 
is often but a frail flower, to-day it is, to-morrow it is 
gone. Lice sap its vitality or the gape-worm does its 
fatal work ; diarrhoea exhausts its strength, or constipa- 
tion kindles a fever in its blood ; the scorching sun 
burns out its little life, or the merciless rain extinguishes 
its feeble light ; the careless feet of its mother trample 
it to death, or the exposed pail of water becomes its 
grave : while rats, cats, skunks, hawks, crows and owls 
render the days terrible and the nights full of horror. 
Despite them all, however, with proper care and wise 
precautions the greater proportion of the chicks hatched 
may be reared to a useful maturity. 

If we bring up our chicks under a hen, as the most 
of us undoubtedly do, we remove the hen and her 



4 o 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



brood from the nest where the chicks were hatched to 
a suitable coop with a lath run in front, when the 
chicks are about twenty-four hours old. For the first 
few days the chick's food consists of the yolk of a hard 
boiled egg, chopped very fine and mixed with bread 
crumbs. Milk, if we have it, and if not, good, fresh, 
clean water, is furnished for drink. This diet is contin- 
ued for three or four days, and five meals a day are 
furnished. In the course of two or three weeks the 
number of meals per day can safely be reduced to three. 
A continued diet of eggs and bread crumbs is not only 
expensive, but leads to constipation. The egg food, 
however, may be continued for an indefinite length of 
time, to the advantage of the chick, if given but once 
a day. When the chicks are three or four days old, 
you can feed them with Indian corn meal, mixed with 
boiling water, which cooks the meal and makes a hasty 
pudding of it. A still better way to cook the meal is 
to wet it up very thin and watery and then put into a 
hot oven and allow it to bake. The water swells the 
meal, and the heat cooks and dries it. Indian meal, 
however prepared, should only be fed to chicks when in 
a crumbly state. If you continue the egg-diet, chop the 
white and yolk and shell together and feed once a day 
or once in two days. Wheat bran and oat meal, mixed 
with corn meal, also make a good food. When the egg- 
diet is discontinued, and we recommend that it be not 
wholly discontinued until your chicks are six or eight 
weeks old, if you are striving to raise extra fine ones, 
animal food in some form should be supplied ; and this 
is especially necessary if your chicks are closely confined. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 4.T 

When they run at large and have a free range, the 
numberless bugs, grasshoppers and worms which they ob- 
tain satisfy the carnal cravings of their appetites ; but in 
confinement they cannot get these things and their keeper 
must furnish the bugs, grasshoppers and worms or a sat- 
isfactory substitute therefor. Cooked meat chopped fine 
will answer the purpose. Boiled plucks and livers or 
any coarse and inexpensive meat is what should be pro- 
vided, or the breeder can go into the business of raising 
maggots or meal worms. It is not an attractive business 
and yet a good maggot pit is not to be despised. To 
make one, dig a hole one foot to eighteen inches deep, 
fill with straw and horse manure, with a sprinkling of 
yeast and some mashed potatoes and corn meal, covering 
the mixture with about one inch of earth. As a single 
fly is said to lay five hundred millions of eggs in a sea- 
son, each egg producing a maggot in nine days, it will 
be seen, that you do not require a great supply of flies. 
If we could only engraft the laying qualities of a fly on 
the hen we should deserve well of our own and future 
generations. A piece of meat buried slightly or hung 
up in the sun will produce many maggots. To breed 
meal worms it is necessary to get a supply, say a couple 
of hundred, (most bird stores have them for sale and 
bakeries have them sub rosa), and put them into an 
earthen jar, with scraps of leather, bran and damaged 
meal. Place cotton waste on the mass and keep it 
moist with water. The worms breed very rapidly and 
sixty days time will give you a supply for daily feeding. 
Green food must not be forgotten. Tender blades 
of grass, onions and cabbages, young oats, chopped fine, 



42 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

will be relished and will help to keep your young broods 
in health and promote a rapid growth. 

As soon as the chicks get large enough to eat grain 
it should be furnished them. Cracked corn and wheat 
make a good food, and chicks will begin to eat such 
food when they are quite young. 

Bone meal, or bone cracked fine enough for them to 
swallow, powdered charcoal, lime, sulphur, sand and gravel 
should be among the poulterer's supplies and should be 
frequently furnished to the growing broods. 

Chicks don't always know enough to go in when it 
rains ; therefore, you must keep them in when it rains 
until they are some weeks old. Keep them, also, from 
tramping through the grass when the dew is on it. 
Moisture, applied externally, to the young chick is deadly. 
Keep them from it and they ought to do well. 

Incubator chicks need the same kind of care. They 
must be kept dry and warm, and their brooder kept 
scrupulously clean, and the air which they breathe kept 
fresh and pure, and they will thrive and grow rapidly. 

FEEDING FOWLS. 

Feeding, like any other subject, may have its philoso- 
phy, that is, its general principles, which underlie and 
explain the particular facts. These are not numerous ; 
indeed, six principles will be found sufficient to explain 
the subject satisfactorily. These are — 

i st. Feed for what you wish to produce. One system 
of feeding is best adapted to the production of eggs ; 
another to the growth of flesh and fat ; and another to 
the development of virility and the strengthening of the 
reproductive organs. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 43 

2d. Feed according to the age of fowls. Fowls of 
different ages require different feeding. A babe needs 
milk, a strong man meat. Your chicks need one kind 
of food, your adult, fowls another. 

3d. Feed according to surrounding circumstances. Fowls 
kept in close confinement depend wholly upon what is 
supplied to them. Fowls which have an extended range 
can find no small part of their living themselves. The 
first require obviously a different system of feeding from 
the second. 

4th. Furnish a variety of food. " Variety is the 
spice of life," says the old aphorism ; it is certainly nec- 
essary for the welfare of every living organism. It is 
not only agreeable to the palate, but is absolutely essen- 
tial to keep the flame of life burning. A fowl has 
varied wants ; it has to produce from its food bones, 
muscles, fat, feathers, and the constituents of eggs. No 
one food has been discovered which contains all the 
needed elements in sufficient quantities. 

5 th. Cleanliness in feeding is necessary. u Cleanliness 
is next to godliness," and you cannot afford to neglect 
it in feeding. If you do, the health of your flock will 
be likely to suffer, and loss ensue therefrom. 

6th. Avoid overfeeding and underfeeding. They are 
the Scylla and Charybdis of the poultry raiser. The 
first produces disease, the second undermines the foun- 
dations of life. Feed what your fowls need, and no more. 
Avoid these rocks, (which are laid down upon the chart, 
but so indefinitely, that only the experienced mariner 
knows just where they are), avoid these dangerous rocks, 
unless you wish to make shipwreck of your enterprise. 



44 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

FEEDING FOR LAYING. 

Feed only a small amount of Indian corn, as it pos- 
sesses too much fat-producing material to be profitable, 
and a fat hen will not lay as well as one in good con- 
dition — neither poor nor fat. Plenty of food must be 
supplied or the hen cannot produce the eggs ; a factory 
cannot run without a supply of raw material. A good 
system of feeding for laying hens is as follows : 

In the morning give such soft food as you intend to 
feed, the scraps from the house, mashed potatoes mixed 
with a small quantity of corn meal and wheat bran. 

At noon oats scattered over the ground, (in winter 
among straw or chaff to make the hen take exercise). 

At night about equal parts of whole corn and wheat, 
or wheat alone. 

Green food must be provided. Chopped cabbage and 
onions are excellent. Animal food also should be fur- 
nished twice .a week. 

A feeding of oats fried in fat, once or twice a week, 
especially in winter, will be found profitable. 

Lime in some form, (pounded oyster shells unburned 
is the best), must be provided for egg-shell material. 

Milk is an admirable food for fowls. The more you 
use it the better you will like it. 

Condiments, such as egg-foods, cayenne pepper, etc., 
may be given sparingly. Too much will cause the pro- 
duction of soft-shelled eggs. 

FEEDING BREEDING STOCK. 

The problem here is not so much how to increase 
the number of eggs as how can the most vigorous chick- 






A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 45 

ens be produced. Vigorous parents, on the principle 
that "like ' produces like," ought to produce vigorous 
children ; but we know that, however fine our stock may 
be when purchased, we may, by a wrong system of 
feeding, destroy its vitality, and the young which spring 
from it will be " degenerate scions of a noble stock." 
One fact should be remembered, or rather one law should 
be stated — the young is affected by the condition of the 
parents at the exact moment when begotten. Drunken 
parents, in a maudlin condition, have begotten idiotic 
children. Parents, in a low state of health, have begot- 
ten children with impaired constitutions. Fowls out of 
condition produce chicks out of condition, which do not 
live out half their days, and live that half in a state of 
weakness and uselessness which makes you, when the end 
finally comes, wish that they had "died before they were 
born." 

Feed your breeding stock so as to keep them in vig- 
orous health. Let their diet be generous but not stimu- 
lating. Plenty of oats, and wheat, little corn (for we do 
not wish to produce fat but muscles), plenty of green 
food and clean water, with now and then a taste of 
meat to keep them in heart, and furnish a variety — 
this is the diet which leads to chicks that do not die 
in the shell, or hold on for a few days after hatching 
to the slender thread of their existence, only to snap it 
in twain with the first noticeable variation in the tem- 
perature. 

FATTENING, 

Rich food and plenty of it, close confinement . and 



4-J A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

little or no exercise, now are demanded. Separate the 
sexes, putting the cocks into one pen, the pullets into 
another. Be careful to put together only such fowls as 
are accustomed to run in company, to prevent quarrel- 
ing. Peace must reign or fat will not be a willing sub- 
ject. Have your place so warm that some of the food 
which the fowl eats need not go as fuel to warm its 
quarters. This does not mean that the place should be 
hot. Let the place be dry, and for a part of the time, 
at least, dark. Corn meal, milk, buckwheat, barley, and 
a few potatoes are the staple articles of food, which 
should be cooked and fed warm. 

There are two systems of artificial fattening, called 
cramming, in vogue in France and elsewhere — solid and 
liquid. The fowls are shut up separately in coops eight 
inches wide, the sexes kept apart, fowls of the same 
degree of fatness kept near each other, and everything 
kept scrupulously clean. 

In solid cramming the food is made into rolls about 
two inches long, which, after soaking in milk or water, 
are thrust down the throat. 

In liquid cramming the food is mixed to a semi-fluid 
consistence, and is put down the throats of the fowls by 
the aid of a funnel. 

Elaborate machines have been invented for carrying 
into effect both solid and liquid cramming, and these 
systems are practiced largely abroad, and to some extent 
in this country. For profit, large establishments are nec- 
essary, and the reader who wishes to adopt either system 
of cramming is advised to consult works specially treat- 
ing of this subject. 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



47 



DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIES. 

Print in large letters and nail up in a conspicuous 
place in your poultry-house "AN OUNCE OF PRE- 
VENTION IS WORTH A TON OF CURE." We 
have taken the liberty to alter the familiar aphorism by 
substituting the word "ton" for "pound," the latter word 
not giving emphasis enough. Diseases, even of fowls, 
can sometimes be cured, but it is cheaper, and more 
satisfactory, to prevent them. Under your motto print 
the following maxims : 

i. Don't overcrowd your hen-house. 

2. Keep your buildings well ventilated. 

3. Keep everything clean. 

4. Whitewash is cheaper than cholera, and fumigation 
more profitable than lice. 

5. Sunlight is as necessary as corn. 

6. Don't underfeed or overfeed, and don't forget 
that fresh water is abundant and cheap. 

But even when all precautions are taken to ward off 
disease, it will sometimes appear. " Accidents will happen 
in the best regulated families." It becomes necessary 
therefore to know something about the diseases to which 
poultry is subject and the remedies by means of which 
they may be conquered. 

Roup — Symptoms. A catarrh or cold in the head ; 
dry cough and dull wheezing ; much fever, the fowl 
drinking eagerly ; comb and wattles either pale or dark 
colored ; yellowish discharge, thin and watery at first, but 
growing thicker and thicker, from throat, nostrils and 
eyes ; eyes and face sometimes greatly swollen ; pustules 
about the head and in the gullet which discharge a 



48 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

frothy pus ; crop generally swollen ; the discharge has a 
bad odor and this is one of the distinctive symptoms. 

Look under the bird's wing and see if there is not 
a spot where the feathers are smeared with the discharge 
from the beak ; examine the nostrils ; at night listen for 
rattling or wheezing among your birds. 

Treatment. Cut off the fowl's head in a severe case. 
This is the only known remedy which has never failed. 
If you are not equal to such heroic treatment, separate 
the sick bird from the others, as the disease is conta- 
gious. Give warm, stimulating food, and house in a 
warm, dry place. The German Roup Pills are highly 
recommended. Give stimulants ; mustard or pulverized 
ginger in pills as large as a pea thrice daily ; cayenne 
pepper in food and drink which may be seasoned as 
strongly as you would use it for yourself. 

Wash the eyes thoroughly with castile soap suds or 
with Labarraque's Solution of Chlorinated Soda, mixed 
with two parts of water, several times a day. If the 
throat be clogged with the secretion, clear it out and 
use the Chi. Sod. here, applying with camel's hair brush. 
Sometimes it is necessary to remove a cheesy lump 
under the eyes by an operation with the knife, but gen- 
erally bathing will accomplish all that is necessary. 

Pulverized sulphur blown through a goose quill into 
the throat and nostrils and other parts affected will be 
beneficial. This treatment has been tried in diphtheria 
and with good results, and roup resembles diphtheria 
very closely. 

Bronchitis, Coughs, etc. Put the fowl in a dry place ; 
keep it warm and give sweetened water slightly soured 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



49 



with sulphuric and nitric acid. Cayenne pepper or gin- 
gjr in the food may hasten the recovery. Examine the 
fowl to see if the cough is not due to parasites in the 
air passages, as in the case of gapes in chickens. 

Gapes — Symptoms. The fowl in breathing stretches up 
its neck and gasps ; it sneezes and makes vain efforts to 
swallow ; it has the general symptoms of not being in 
good health, such as lack of activity, moping about, 
dropping its wings, etc. 

Treatment. Put some carbolic acid, of the clear, 
transparent quality, into a spoon or metal saucer and 
hold it over a lamp. Dense white fumes will arise. In 
these hold the chicken's head until it is nearly suffo- 
cated. 

Another method is to take a feather, stripped of all 
the web save at its tip, dip it into turpentine or kero- 
sene, and thrust into the wind-pipe and turn it around 
several 'times. Some of the worms will be killed, some 
will come out with the feather, and some will be coughed 
out. Burn them all. 

Still another method is to confine the chicks affected 
in a small box over which is stretched a cover of thin 
muslin. Sift fine lime through this cover but not so 
fast as to smother the chicks. This will cause a violent 
sneezing and coughing which will expel the gape worms. 

Cholera — Symptoms. The discharges are at first yel- 
lowish green, "like sulphur and water," becoming thinner, 
greener and more frothy as the disease progresses. The 
breathing becomes heavy and fast, crop fills with mucus 
and wind, the food is not digested, the eyes close and 
the fowl dies. These symptoms are accompanied by 



5° 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



weakness, much fever, great thirst and a rapid, weak 
pulse. 

Treatment. Separate the sick from the well, and, if 
you can do it, give every sick fowl a separate place. 
Remove the whole flock to new quarters. If you cannot 
do this, let there be a general house cleaning, white- 
washing, fresh earth, nests oiled, vermin killed, house fu- 
migated, runs spaded. 

Dr. Dickie in an article recommends the following 
treatment: " Fowls that are too sick to eat should have 
every four or five hours a pill made as follows: Blue 
mass 60 grains, pulverized camphor 25 grains, cayenne 
pepper 30 grains, pulverized rhubarb 48 grains, laudanum 
60 drops ; mix and make into 20 pills. When they have 
had time to act, give half a teaspoonful of castor oil 
and ten drops of laudanum to each. Let them drink 
scalded sour milk, with a gill of Douglass' Mixture (see 
below) for every twenty-five head, a day. The treatment 
ought to change the character of the evacuations and 
make them darker and more solid. When this happens, 
and not before, give them alum water or strong white 
Oak bark tea to drink, and no other drink." 

The following treatment has been tried with success : 
Mix corn meal and wheat bran together, add cayenne 
pepper, and enough kerosene oil to go through the whole 
mass. Mix in proportions of about two heaping table- 
spoonfuls of pepper and one pint of kerosene to two 
pails full of the mixed meal and bran ; add boiling wa- 
ter and stir thoroughly. Those fowls which do not eat 
must be crammed with this food. Put cayenne pepper 
and tincture of iron alternately into their drinking 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. ql 

water. Follow up this treatment for three days if neces- 
sary. 

Tonics and alteratives may be tried in the feed ; iron, 
sulphur, cayenne pepper, soda, in succession. German 
Roup Pills are recommended on account of their tonic 
properties. 

Indigestion — Symptoms. Either constipation or diarrhoea ; 
fever, loss of appetite, sickly yellowish look about the 
head and comb. 

Treat?ncnt. Five grains of rhubarb, changed every 
fourth day for one grain of calomel, is recommended by 
Wright. Cut down the diet to a little soft, bland food ; 
limit the water supply and give cut green grass. 

Diarrhoea and Dysentery — Symptoms. Symptoms are too 
generally known to require specific enumeration ; when 
accompanied with bloody evacuations the disease is called 
dysentery. 

Treatment. For diarrhoea give six drops of camphor- 
ated spirit on barley meal. Restrict the drink and put 
a little tincture of iron or alum into it. For dysentery 
give a dose of castor oil, and follow with laudanum, five 
drops every few hours. 

PARASITES. 

Worms — Symptoms. General loss of health, but the 
only reliable symptom is finding them in the evacuations. 

Treatment. Improve the general health. A dose of 
castor oil, followed by sulphur in the food, may be effi- 
cacious. 

Scaly Leg — Symptoms. Grayish-white swellings on the 
legs, which may ulcerate. This is a species of itch, 
caused by a parasite, and is contagious. 



52 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

Treatment. Wash the legs thoroughly with castile soap 
and water, and apply sulphur and lard, working it under 
the scales. Stoddard's Poultry Ointment is convenient 
and reliable. 

Lice — Symptoms. General appearance of loss of health. 
Examine the heads, under the wings, and about the 
anus. You will be likely to find them. 

Treatment. ist, of the fowls : Persian Insect Powder, 
powdered sulphur, carbolic powder and snuff may be 
blown or worked into the plumage. An ointment of 
sulphur, lard and kerosene may be applied to adult 
fowls, but beware of applying it to chicks. I once gave 
a thorough application of sulphur and lard to some White 
Leghorn chicks about a month old, and every one of 
them died within three or four days. 

2d, of the houses, etc. : Remove the straw of the 
nests, apply kerosene thoroughly to every spot which 
could harbor a louse ; be thorough, and you will remove 
the evil. 

Red Mites. Treatment similar to the above ; be 
thorough. 

These are some of the more common and more 
troublesome diseases which affect poultry. You will find 
these and others, with their remedies, more thoroughly 
discussed in " Poultry Diseases," by H. H. Stoddard, a 
little* work which every poultryman ought to possess. 
We close this branch of our subject with 

A FEW USEFUL RECIPES. 

Douglass' Mixture. Copperas, one pound, dissolved in 
two gallons of water ; then add, stirring well, one ounce 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 53 

of oil of vitriol ; keep in jugs. This is a good tonic, 
in the dose of an ounce to a gallon of drinking water, 
twice or four times a week. 

Chicken Powders. Four ounces each of copperas, 'cay- 
enne, sulphur and resin ; powder all ; mix ; two spoonfuls 
for each dozen fowls several times a week. A good 
tonic. 

Lime Water. Four ounces of lime ; one gallon of 
water ; slack the lime with a little of the water and pour 
on the rest ; cover and set aside for three hours ; then 
pour off the clear liquid. 

Tonics and Sto?nachics. A few drops of tincture of 
iron in the drinking water, or half dozen rusty nails 
thrown in the bottom of the vessel. 

Cayenne pepper and asafcetida are good digestive 
stimulants ; garlic and onions have a good effect on the 
lungs and bronchia ; charcoal is a good purifier of the 
digestive organs. 

THE EXHIBITION ROOM. 

The way to win prizes on poultry is to deserve them. 
Accurate knowledge of the various characteristics of your 
special breed or breeds, of the requirements of the 
American Standard of Excellence, and of the principles of 
correct mating, is absolutely essential. " The early bird 
catches the worm," and the early chick catches the first 
prize. Prize chickens must be hatched early ; if of the 
larger breeds not later than April, while March is pref- 
erable. And they must be so reared as not to have 
their growth retarded by the cold weather. They must 
not know that this is a cold, cold world into which 



54 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

they have come. They must be reared carefully and 
be kept growing, for weight counts with all breeds ex- 
cept Bantams. With these you must reverse the process 
and get them out Jate. 

When your fowls are well grown, you ought to select 
those destined for the exhibition room from the others. 
There will be but a small percentage found suitable. 
You must be very rigid in your selection, examining each 
fowl in detail, commencing with the comb and finishing 
with the toes in order, and rejecting every bird which 
shows any imperfection. Among these rejected birds will 
be many excellent breeding fowls, perhaps for this pur- 
pose equally or more valuable than the ones selected for 
exhibition, but they are not for the poultry show. 

The few, which have stood the tests of your exami- 
nation, are now to be fed for the show. For their 
morning meal give them warm cooked meal-and-potato 
mash ; at noon, cracked corn, whole wheat and occasion- 
ally buckwheat ; at night, whole corn, with crushed bone ; 
and about twice a week broken scraps. Two or three 
times a week a meal of cooked meat will be useful. 
Give them only what they will eat up clean. Give them 
plenty of clean water. 

About six weeks previous to the exhibition, at which 
you propose to show your fowls, these selected fowls 
must undergo another examination and selection. Out 
of them we choose the one or two pairs or trios that 
we intend to exhibit. These birds must not only be 
fine birds but the principles of matching (we are speak- 
ing of poultry shows as they are, not as they ought to 
be) must be understood now, for your pair or trio or 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 55 

breeding pen must " match in the show-pen" or they will 
be disqualified, no matter how fine each bird may be by 
itself. 

The cocks now must be kept by themselves, and the 
pullets also by themselves in order to keep the plumage 
perfect. They must be well fed, not gorged but given 
all they will eat up clean, regularly three times a day. 
Rice boiled in milk is excellent for one meal. Whole 
wheat cooked in this way is also good. Boiled potatoes, 
mashed with either of these grains, is perhaps the very 
best food for one meal a day that can be given. 

Give a small quantity of sunflower seeds daily to in- 
crease gloss of plumage. Feed meat sparingly. 

If you have white or light-colored fowls wash them 
from twelve to twenty hours before shipping. Take an 
ordinary wash-tub, fill the tub with warm water (not hot) 
so as to cover the back of the bird ; use pure white 
soap ; . rub the bird well with the soap on all parts that 
appear soiled ; rub the feathers hard but do not break 
them. When you have thoroughly washed the bird, rinse 
him in another tub of cold water, previously provided. 
After draining put the bird into a clean coop and place 
in a warm room to dry. 

For dull combs a good rubbing with brandy is recom- 
mended to restore their brightness. Ear-lobes of a yel- 
low shade may be made over into a winning white by 
touching them up with whiskey ; turpentine is also used 
for this purpose. 

Cages are generally provided by the societies, but if 
you must provide your own cage paint on the inside, 
for white bodied birds, a dark green or brown ; for dark- 



6 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



colored birds, a pure white, The birds show off better 
against such a back-ground. 

In preparing your fowls for transportation cover the 
coops with coarse bagging or thick cotton canvas, on 
four sides. If they must be several days en route a sheet 
of coarse paper tacked on four sides of the coop may 
prevent frozen combs or wattles, leaving space for air. 

Our poultry exhibitions ought to be reformed in some 
particulars. 

First. The judge ought to have no means of know- 
ing the ownership of fowls ; and any exhibitor, who, by 
means of cards tacked upon the coop or by giving notice 
personally or by some agent, discloses the ownership of 
his or any other person's fowls, on exhibition, ought to 
be disqualified from competing at this show and for some 
definite length of time, say one or two years. 

Second. Fowls ought to be scored individually and 
prizes awarded to the best individuals, not to the best 
combination. "Every tub should stand on its own bot- 
tom. " A 95 point cockerel ought not to be spoiled by 
an 80 point pullet ; nor a 97 point pullet by an 85 point 
cockerel. 

Third. Prizes for breeding pens should be given to 
those pens mated to obtain the best results, not, as they 
now are, to the pens which have the highest aggregate 
score. Such pens might be denominated exhibition pens, 
but to call them breeding pens is a misnomer. 

After the exhibition is over, have your fowls shi d 
home, taking every precaution against colds. Give them 
as comfortable quarters as possible, giving them light and 
non-fattening- food. You are anxious not only to get 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 57 

them into shape for breeding, perhaps, but also to get 
them into a natural state of health. A good diet for a 
month will be cooked bran and turnips mashed in the 
morning and oats and barley only for dry food. Plenty 
of bone, shell, gravel, and such other substances should 
be supplied. Chopped hay, cut short, may be given 
plentifully ; cooked meat and boiled fish occasionally. 
Those that have colds should be treated carefully for 
them. 

With good fowls, mated, reared, selected, matched, 
prepared, shipped, returned and restored in the manner 
above related, you ought to have won enough prizes and 
made a good enough record to satisfy any reasonable 
man, and to lay a solid foundation for patronage for the 
ensuing year. You have tasted trouble, you are now to 
enjoy for a time the sweets of success, and to make 
preparations for another and still more successful cam- 
paign. . 

POULTRY ON A LARGE SCALE. 

The many will raise poultry in small numbers ; but 
a few will be found who desire to engage in the busi- 
ness on an extensive scale. To a lover of fowls the 
business is an attractive one, and properly managed it is 
a profitable one. Within the remaining limits of this 
treatise it will only be possible to outline some of the 
more general principles that are involved in the undertak- 
ing ; to state briefly the plans which some have proposed 
and tried, and to refer the reader to other sources of 
information where the subject is treated in extenso. 

One of the first difficulties that is to be met is that 



58 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM, 

large flocks do not do well, and that therefore the fowls 
must be separated into small flocks and scattered over 
the grounds. This can be done in three ways : 

1. By building a large fowl-house and having runs 
close to each other, extending out in different directions. 
The fowls are under one roof, and the attendant can 
care for them more easily, having to traverse less ground 
in taking care of them. The objection to this plan is 
that the fowls are brought together in so large numbers 
that, although they are separated into small flocks, they 
do not do well. 

2. The fowls may have separate houses with runs 
attached, each house containing but one small flock, and 
the houses well apart. The objection to this is the 
amount of the original outlay. 

3. This is the plan advocated by H. H. Stoddard 
in his Egg Farm, a monograph upon this topic. His 
plan is to have the houses separated, painted different 
colors, so that the fowls can readily distinguish their 
own, and making " the mutual antagonisms of neighbor- 
ing flocks take the place of yard fences, just as among 
wild jungle fowls." The advantages of this plan are the 
greater economy and the less outlay required. 

The person who attempts raising poultry on a large 
scale must make that his business and manage it upon 
business principles. His problem is the production of 
marketable eggs, or marketable poultry, or both, at prices 
which leave a good margin for profit. He does not care 
for fine points i;i plumage, exact markings, perfect combs, 
ear-lobes of the precise standard shade, wattles rounded 
to a hair's breadth. All these he leaves to the breeder 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 59 

of fancy poultry. He says : " What I wish are fowls 
that pay, fowls that produce eggs in abundance, and 
make poultry on a small amount of grain. The pur- 
chaser of my eggs is not going to inquire whether the 
plumage of my fowls is nicely penciled, barred or 
spangled, but whether the eggs are fresh ; and the pur- 
chaser of my dressed poultry does not ask whether the 
ear-lobes were perfect, or the comb had just five points, 
but he wishes to know whether the meat is juicy and 
tender." So he does not need to be particular about 
keeping his fowls absolutely pure in blood. A little inter- 
mixture of blood sometimes seems to him an advantage. 

A poultry farm should be located near a city, in or- 
der to insure a good , market. This is especially impor- 
tant when eggs are the staple product. Eggs can be 
delivered weekly to families, in the same manner that 
milk is delivered, and with this advantage in favor of 
the eggs — that the route need not be traversed daily. 

Soil capable of cultivation should be selected. Such 
soil furnishes a good market for the manure, which can 
thus be utilized to the best advantage. Our political 
economists of the protectionist school are loud in the 
advocacy of "a home market." Here is one to which 
the most rabid free-trader would not object, but would 
be willing to admit that it was better than the best 
foreign market. It will be well to grow such crops as 
are most needed for home consumption ; here, too, we 
are protectionists. 

The buildings should be economical, both in con- 
struction and in convenience, saving of money and time. 

The breed of fowls will depend somewhat upon the 



60 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

object which we propose. If it be the raising of eggs 
as chief, with the disposition of only the surplus stock 
and extra cockerels as subordinate ends, then White Leg- 
horns or Brown Leghorns will probably be selected. If 
we desire to add to eggs the disposition of surplus stock, 
and to the disposition of surplus stock, the rearing of 
marketable poultry, we shall keep Plymouth Rocks or 
Dorkings. If we keep Leghorns, we may find it to our 
advantage to keep a few flocks of Light Brahmas for 
winter laying. These crossed with the common white 
fowls make good looking and very serviceable sitters ; if 
we hatch out our chicks naturally we shall need them. 
The great improvements made in incubators and brooders 
in the past ten years may induce people to use artificial 
in preference to natural incubation, but we are so con- 
servative that we confess to a prejudice in favor of "the 
good old way." 

Numberless details attach to every important business, 
and poultry on a large scale is no exception to the 
general rule. Before engaging in it you will be wise to 
inform yourself of the requisites to success, the proper 
construction and location of buildings, the proper man- 
agement and care of fowls, the labor-saving appliances 
which may be brought into requisition, the crops which 
should be raised on the farm, and the thousand and one 
things necessary to be known for the proper prosecution 
of such an undertaking. By all means read what has 
been written upon this subject, commencing with Stod- 
dard's An Egg Farm ; but do not rest in simply read- 
ing. Seek out those poultry farms which are in success- 
ful operation to-day and make a careful study of their 



A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 6l 

systems of management. You can learn not a little 
which will be of great service to you in so doing. And 
finally do not start in with three or five thousand fowls, 
but with a few hundred and gradually increase the num- 
ber as experience in managing them enables you to do 
so profitably. You will find that you have to make a 
market for your eggs, and eggs are perishable property 
and must be sold when fresh. You will have a great 
deal to learn in caring for your flocks and in looking 
after the details of your business. If you commence 
with too many the chances are that, unless you are a 
very remarkable person, you will make a bad failure. 
But if you begin with a comparatively small number you 
can fit yourself for the easy management of a large bus- 
iness, and find that its details do not wear upon you 
any more than did the cares of your smaller business. 
A harness once perfectly fitted is easy to wear, but be- 
fore the fitting is accomplished it is liable to chafe in 
spots and produce galls and lameness, and it is so with 
the harness of your business. Once fitted to you, you 
will find it easy and pleasant to wear and will be sur- 
prised at the loads which you can draw without discom- 
fort. 

CONCLUSION. 

We have traversed a pretty wide field. We have 
surveyed the various purposes which a poultryman may 
have ; we have selected a breed suitable for the chosen 
purpose ; we have studied the principles that should gov- 
ern in the erection of a poultry-house and yard ; we 
have considered the science of mating fowls for the pro- 
duction of young that shall be a credit to their progen- 



62 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 

itors ; we have glanced at the egg and the methods of 
transforming it into a living creature ; we have explained 
the care that awaits with solicitude upon the tender days 
of chickenhood ; we have set forth the principles which 
make up the philosophy of feeding ; we have diagnosed 
the various poultry diseases and prescribed for the pa- 
tients ; we have entered the exhibition room with our 
feathered pets and carried away all the first prizes in 
our department ; and we have considered the difficulties 
that lie in wait for the inexperienced who desire to raise 
poultry on a large scale. This is a pretty wide field to 
survey, and our glance at it necessarily has been a hasty 
one. Each topic touched upon in these pages, is large 
enough to demand for its proper treatment a discussion 
as extended as the space into which we have been 
obliged to compress all of them. But we hope that we 
have given a view of the field that will be of service ; 
that from these pages may be learned enough to enable 
the would-be breeder to successfully rear from the egg 
to the exhibition room the breed which he has selected. 
We hope, however, that the reader will not rest content 
with this bird's-eye view, but that he will scrutinize each 
portion of this field in detail, until he has become fa- 
miliar, not only with its general outlines and the relation 
of part to part, but also with all the elevations and de- 
pressions that belong to each part. In other words we 
hope that he will pursue his investigations until he has 
mastered the science of rearing poultry. Much 'has been 
written upon this subject that can be read with profit. 
There is no danger of reading too much. Danger lies 
in the opposite direction for all of us. 



STODDARD'S 

Twenty-Five Cent Poultry Boob. 



THIRTEEN POULTRY BOOKS! 

To meet the needs of inquirers regarding special poultry topics, we 
publish thirteen separate treatises, which we mail for 25 cents each, entitled: 

"POULTRY DISEASES," 

"POULTRY ARCHITECTURE," 
"LIGHT BRAHMAS," 

'WHITE LEGHORNS," 

"BROWN LEGHORNS," 

"PLYMOUTH ROCKS," 
"WYANDOTTES," 
"DOMESTIC WATER-FOWL," 

"INCUBATION; Natural and Artificial," 

' * HOW TO RAISE POULTRY ON A LARGE SCALE," 
"HOW TO FEED FOWLS," 

"HOW TO WIN POULTRY PRIZES," 

" HOW TO PRESERVE EGGS." 

Any one of the above thirteen books mailed singly for 25 cents; any 
five for $1.00, or ten for $2.00 ; the whole thirteen books for $2.50. 
Address, 

H. H. STODDARD, Publisher, 

HARTFORD, CONN. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 839 742 2 



